Since its debut in 2007, the application a brainchild of Evan Williams and Jack Dorsey, you might be wondering–what’s new with Twitter? The answer to that question is that there aren’t many new or complex updates from its conception as a combination social media and SMS hotspot. However, there are some key features that authors might be overlooking on the path to making the most of a Twitter audience and book promotion.
Twitter analytics is a feature that every Twitter user, business or personal, has access to. You can find the statists of how users interact with your content by selecting the bar-graph symbol below each of your posts.
How to use it – Upon clicking the bar-graph, a window titled “Tweet Activity” will open allowing you to see exactly how many “Impressions” (people who have viewed your post); “Engagements” (how many likes, shares, or comments on your post); and “Link Clicks” (how many people have clicked the links in your post) your Tweet received. Monitoring your Tweet activity is an important piece of tracking the payoff of your efforts in comparison to the time you’ve spent creating content. If you are spending a lot of time planning Tweets and not receiving any buzz from your posts, it might be time to switch your strategy or outlet of choice. Logging activity can also help you better strategize the subject matter you Tweet about based on which of your posts gets the most traction.
Including a backlink to your website or buy link where people can purchase your book in social media posts is a great way to keep people clicking around your content for long periods of time. On Twitter, you can pin a Tweet to the top of your page containing those valuable links. This author strategy makes the Tweet containing your links the first thing users see when visiting your page.
How to use it – Each time you click on one of your own tweets, you see a dropdown arrow on the upper-right-hand side of its window. If you click on that dropdown, you are prompted by a variety of options: “Share via Direct Message,” “Copy link to Tweet,” “Embed Tweet,” “Mute This Conversation,” “Pin to your profile page,” “Delete Tweet,” and “Add to new Moment.” After selecting the Pin to your profile page option, that Tweet is now pinned to the top of your page. This ensures optimal exposure due to the fact that it’s the first thing users notice after clicking on your page. You’ll be seeing increased book sales and clicks on your website in no time!
Twitter is currently beta testing several brand-new features such as status updates and a new color-coded organization for Tweet comments. For now, you are equipped with the Twitter tools to win over new followers. If you’re still stuck on basic functions like hashtags, check out our blog post that breaks those concepts down.